Lemoncat

Find Business Catering Online

FoodTech
Founded in 2016
35 employees
Funding €9M / 2 Rounds

Lemoncat, the online marketplace for business catering, was launched with the mission to give business customers a platform to choose and book their catering in just seconds. From a small business meeting to trade fairs or a Christmas party – the platform gives access to the best local caterers. Lemoncat has the biggest variety in Germany with more than 400 caterers in 285 cities. Website

Interview with Lemoncat

What inspired you to found your startup?

I have been an entrepreneur all my life. I founded my first company when I was 23. LEMONCAT was well thought through and not a quick idea. I was thinking about the catering business since my Delivery Hero times when we had to organize many team meetings. I was never satisfied with the food, the choice and the order process for catering. When I was working in the US I realized that there were some great offers in the catering space already and I started looking into the European catering market.

How do you define success for yourself and your company?

A successful company wins customers, wins markets and makes money. I want to build the best product and the best executing team. I am not a big fan of this failure thing. Of cause everybody makes mistakes on the way to success but in the end it is about winning, not failing.

Is there anything you’d do differently if you could do it again?

LEMONCAT is my fourth company and there is no secret masterplan behind running a company. Working hard and challenging the existing and doing it differently all the time is a key to success. If you are not able to change and to adapt the company is already dead.

What problem does your product solve?

We live in the 21st century. We all order pizza online, pay online, order a taxi online, read books on our kindles but it was not possible for an office manager to order their catering online. It is something so simple but so complicated. I wanted to make thinks a little easier for our customers.

Where do you see your company in 1/5/10 years?

Lemoncat will be the market leader in the catering space. We want to digitize the market and make customers and caterers aware that there is a new service like ours. The Lemoncat team is working very hard to build an amazing tech product for customers and caterers to make their lives easier.

How are you different?

We are the only marketplace which focusses on B2B only. We want to build the perfect product for businesses. Not even a year after we launched the platform we are already number one when it comes to choice. We have more than 400 caterers in 285 German cities.

How often does your product/service show up in a user’s day or week?

In average our business customers are ordering catering every week, some of them even daily. We are very present in their lifes.

Impact: how are you doing good and building a better future?

Most people have no idea how many amazing catering companies we have out there. Some very passionate foodies who love to cook but don’t know how to win new customers. Lemoncat enables passionate local caterers to get access to customers. We want to democratize the catering market and don’t only display the big, well known caterers but fight for more variety and food quality.

How has the startup scene in Berlin changed?

The startup scene in Berlin has changed a lot in the last 10 years. On the one hand it is great since you are seeing some great investors coming to Berlin and supporting startups here but on the other hand is is getting much harder to find affordable, great people to hire.

What are the pros and cons of launching your startup from Berlin?

Compared to London and Paris Berlin’s cost of living is still pretty affordable. So it attracts many people from all over the world and you can hire international teams if you need to. Getting money has been a bit harder than in London for example but thankfully it seems to change.